Well, Christmas is coming. Can’t you just feel the excitement building?
But then there is Advent, and that just doesn’t seem to generate the same level of excitement.
Coming to Redeemer these next few weeks is like entering a parallel universe. You leave the lights and the hustle and bustle of the streets, gift buying, Christmas parties and parades, Santa Claus, traveling plans, getting ready for family visits, praying for short and uneventful family visits, getting the decorations out, budgeting for the electrical bill to light up your yard like the Las Vegas strip.
And then there is the Christmas music that began before the turkey was digested on Thanksgiving and plays interminably on every radio station morning noon and night until it comes to a screeching halt on 26 December. I don’t mean to sound like a Grinch but we have four weeks to go and if I have to listen to Burl Ives sing have a holly, jolly Christmas one more time, my head will blow up.
We leave all that excitement out there and come into the purple vestments, the penitential office, the more somber tone of what we sing, and pray, scripture passages warning us to repent, morose sermons (excepting mine of course!). Don’t you feel the contrast with the culture?
During this season, we spend time and energy preparing for lots of things. But are they the important things?
When hurricane season hits, if you are smart, you will have a hurricane plan. You will prepare yourself: get things ready so that if a hurricane hits you will be prepared. It becomes a matter of life and death.
As a helicopter pilot we regularly used to rehearse emergency procedures that would enhance our survival in case something happened that transformed our flying machine into a candy machine in mid-air.
When you get on an airplane or a cruise ship, there are normally warnings and safety procedures given. These preparations keep you safe in what otherwise could be dangerous situations.
But we are preparing for Christmas, how can that be a dangerous situation – disregarding the artery-clogging meals and the heart-stopping stress of driving and shopping in crowds and the never ending family visits and such.
Other than those issues, are there things to be concerned about during this Christmas prep time? The Church seems to say there is.
While out there you hear “Joy to the World”, “buy”, “spend”. In here you hear “repent”, “be holy”, “be alert”, “be ready”.
Out there the most blood-curdling thing you will hear is “I’m sorry sir, you have exceeded the limit of your card. Or “I’m sorry ma’am, that particular item is very popular and will be out of stock until summer.”
In here you will hear; be prepared because that day comes like a thief in the night. Be on guard that you are not weighed down by the things of this world so you are caught in a trap. Be alert that you may escape these tribulations. Who can endure the day of his coming?
So there really seems to be a difference between out there and in here, and it may be a good thing lest we forget what Christmas is about; what Advent is about.
The Scriptures over these next four weeks will revolve around themes of warning and preparation because something good, and someone good, is coming. But if we are not prepared we could be in trouble.
Advent is the Christian season preparing to celebrate, or better, to remember – revisit – the coming of the Messiah; Jesus’ incarnation as a baby in a manger in Bethlehem. It is a time of joy and expectation, celebrating the reality that God loved us so much he sent his Son to us as the fulfillment of a promise made centuries before to Abraham.
But that joy is tempered as we are also reminded why he came, why he was born there in a manger:
He was born for us that he would die for us. He came because we needed to be saved. Our sins needed to be paid for. The joy of the manger in the stable leads to the reality of the cross on Calvary.
Advent causes us to consider our present in light of what Jesus did before, but it also causes us to consider our present in light of what Jesus has yet to do.
We hear Jesus in today’s gospel stating that there will be signs in the sun, moon and the stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
He is foretelling the end of history, the end of time ushered in at his return. He came, he died, he rose, he ascended, and he promised: I’ll be back. He made those words more memorable long before Arnold uttered them in the Terminator movie.
And he emphasizes it will surely occur. He says: I tell you the truth, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
After giving us this news he says: “and then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
He says: “when these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Using the example of a fig tree, signaling the coming summer with sprouting buds, he says when you see these things happening you know that the Kingdom of God is near.
He says that the bad news means good news is coming! Look up, be expectant, be prepared.
We are reminded that his Incarnation was just the beginning of his work to redeem the world from sin and death. After dealing with our sins on the cross and in his resurrection, he left this world ascending to heaven. But he promised to return and bring his Lordship to ultimate and complete fulfillment.
So it is that we are living in the last days, a time between the comings of Christ. Advent is not thus merely to celebrate his incarnation; his coming in the past, it is also to remind us, warn us that we are living in the end times, the in-between times, and He is going to come again.
The best and only analogy I know that illustrates this is the Normandy invasions in World War II. When the Allies successful invaded Nazi-occupied Europe at Normandy in 1944, the days of the Nazi regime were numbered. Victory was assured but certainly not complete.
It was not complete until the Allied armies, fighting many battles, winning some, losing others, but fighting on, destroyed the Nazi power and brought the leaders of that regime to judgment. That was the end of the war, and the beginning of a new age of freedom for Europe.
With Jesus’ incarnation, He invaded the world. In his cross and resurrection, the bridgehead has been secured and victory has been assured. But it will not be complete until after the battles, when Jesus returns bringing the regime of Satan to judgment, and ushering in a new age of eternal freedom and peace.
And how is it we are to be joyful in this time of battle in the time between?
Again, I know of only one analogy that captures this. In the old (now) movie about the Normandy invasion: “The Longest Day” there is a great scene. It shows an older French couple in a farmhouse on the Normandy coast as the shelling of the Normandy attack begins. As shells and explosions from the Allied guns begin to rock and destroy his house, he is jumping around in absolute joyous abandon, even though it is costing him, even though he is in mortal danger, he welcomes these explosions joyously because he sees them as signs that freedom is coming; the time of oppression is over.
So it is with us as we await Jesus’ return.
He tells us to be on watch, be looking for his coming, be expectantly seeking him. He warns us to be prepared, have our hearts opened to welcome him, our souls decorated in holiness to meet him.
So things will be different during this season between how people prepare out there, and how Christians prepare in here, and how much time and energy one spends in preparation for one or the other may, in fact, be a life-saving decision.
We are living in the last days – that’s what Christmas ushered in so long ago, that’s what we remember in Advent, that Jesus came to break Satan’s power. and though evil, temptation, trials and suffering ultimately destroyed by the Cross will continue to assail humanity, Advent also tells us that we should be expectantly preparing for his second coming, when he will arrive in triumph to judge the living and the dead.
It is a season that reminds us we live in the time between, a time of spiritual battle where we can be compromised if we are not paying attention, not heeding the signs that are in fact all about us.
So, when someone asks: “are you prepared for Christmas?” will you be thinking about trees, and lights and credit card bills, or will you be thinking of things of much greater significance?
Let us pray: Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.